Soccer's Gold Cup coming to Reliant Stadium

Published 6:30 am, Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Houston's Reliant Stadium will play host this July to the premier soccer event leading up to the 2006 World Cup, the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals.

An official announcement of Gold Cup finals sites is expected Wednesday. The Gold Cup will feature the U.S. men's national team, which currently is in the final qualifying stage for the 2006 World Cup, which will be held in Germany.

A match between the United States and Mexico -- bitter rivals -- is highly likely in the Gold Cup. In a 2002 World Cup elimination game between the teams, Team USA staged a 2-0 win over Mexico, earning a first-ever trip to the World Cup quarterfinals.

Mexico, the defending 2003 Gold Cup champions, and Team USA own automatic bids into the tournament based on world rankings and past Gold Cup results.

Other national teams in the 12-team Confederation of North American, Central American and Caribbean nations tournament likely would include world notables such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, Jamaica, Canada and Guatemala.

Two national teams from outside CONCACAF also are invited to the Gold Cup. In recent Gold Cup tournaments, one of those teams has been world power Brazil.

Considered the showpiece event for this International Soccer Federation (FIFA) region, the biannual tournament will take on added significance this year as national teams prepare for the 2006 World Cup.

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As it prepares for World Cup finals qualifying, the U.S. men's national team has upcoming games against Trinidad and Tobago in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad on Feb. 9, and a highly anticipated rematch with Mexico on March 26 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

The Gold Cup event will be without question the biggest in a string of world-class events that Reliant and Soccer United Marketing has brought to Houston, including the recently completed InterLiga final-four and the 2003 USA-Mexico "friendly," which drew more than 65,000 fans to Reliant Stadium.